Sonos Play review: Performance meets comfort

It’s smaller and more portable than the Brutal Action, but large enough to look much fuller than the pint-sized Roam. It can be mounted on its own charging dock to rival the Sonos Era 100 at home, or follow you anywhere. In other words, it’s the epitome of Sonos’ versatility, and now that it’s working properly, it’ll be hard to miss.

Play on

Opening the Play’s brown cardboard packaging feels equal parts Scandi simplicity and sustainability, in keeping with recent releases like the Arc Ultra speakers. Inside, the white acoustic housing makes way for a sturdy tube tweeter with a rubber ring attached, measuring 7.6 x 4.4 x 3 inches and weighing less than 3 pounds. You’ll also find simple setup instructions and a wireless charging dock, but no wall adapter. You’ll need a device that can deliver at least 9V, 2A (18W), but a 15V, 3A (45W) model is recommended for “optimal” charging. Sonos says the adapter’s omission is about reducing e-waste, but it’ll happily sell you one for $29.

Otherwise, the Sonos app is all you need to get started. After the obligatory firmware update, my Play device was up and running on my home network within minutes. Sonos hosts more than 100 streaming services, and you can also stream via third-party services like Spotify Connect, Tidal Connect, Apple AirPlay, and more. You’ll find the speaker as its own “room” on the app’s home page, where you can swipe up to group it with other Sonos products on your network, or go into settings to tweak options like EQ, room name (important if you have more than one running), and Sonos Trueplay to automatically adjust the sound to your environment.

You’ll also find a battery saver toggle, which defaults to turning off the power when it’s been idle for too long. This feature is what, according to Sonos, caused connectivity issues when it tested the speaker’s 24-hour battery claim. Sonos says it identified the root cause, and after updating the firmware, I turned the speaker off multiple times, without any further network outages over the course of a week of additional testing.

Photography: Ryan Wanyata